London, June 13.
The creation of an arbitration committee under the chairmanship of Mr J. K., Caldwell American Consul-
General in Tientsin, was being studied ^s a means of settling the present Anglo-japanese dispute in the North China port, Whitehall quarters announced tonight.
The committee would include two British and two Japanese members. Mr. Caldwell has already been approached and reacted favourably to the suggestion.
Government quarters voiced fears that the Japanese might object to Mr. Caldwell's appointment in the quality of a neutral.
But, on the other hand, they emphasized that the American Consul's impartiality had already found appreciation in Japanese circles, And they expressed the hope that a suggestion for a committee presided over by Mr. Caldwell would be well received by the Japanese, Such action would permit amicable settlement of the Tientsin dispute which is threatening to cause a Japanese blockade of the' British Concession.
The main task of the arbitration group would be to ascertain whether the Japanese had or had not serious grounds for claiming custody of the four Chinese arrested and still held by the British municipal authorities for the murder of Mr. Cheng Shi-kang, Superintendent of Customs.
Government quarters asserted that such procedure would allow for a settlement of the dispute without impairment of either side's prestige.—Havas.
The Japanese measures, they said, were caused by the "lack of a sincere attitude on the part of the British Concession authorities and their failure to ce-operate with the Japanese in the light of the new situation in East Asia."
The question would not be solved, the observers predicted, until the British authorities "completely reverse" their attitude.
Lieut.-Gen. Heisuke Yanagawa, Secretary-General of the Asia Development Board, called on Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma, the Premier, in his official residence at 1 o'clock this afternoon d discussed the Tientsin situation ith him.
By suggesting the appointment ofa commission to thresh out the problem. Britain "only confesses her lack of sagacity, the "Yomiuri Shimbun" declared editorially today.
The daily called the Far Eastern policies of Britain and France "unpardonable."—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.